Components of an office software suite, each capable of performing various processing such as document preparation and spreadsheet calculation, have been generally used now in various scenes, for example, for work, school and home. As typical components of an office software suite, there can be cited Microsoft Word (Trademark), Microsoft Excel (Trademark) and Microsoft PowerPoint (Trademark) of Microsoft Corporation (Trademark). Further, a plurality of office software suites and their components having similar functions, such as Apache OpenOffice, have also been distributed. Standardization for Microsoft Excel and Apache OpenOffice serving as an open source has been completed by a standardization organization, and the specification of each of formats: OOXML (Office Open XML) and ODF (OpenDocument Format) has been opened to public. Further, a number of compatible applications which support the above formats have been distributed.
Further, in recent years, with the spreading of cloud computing, the number of online storage services which offer display and edit functions supporting files (referred to as office suite files) created by applications as components of office software suites, and the number of smartphones and tablet terminals which have display and edit functions supporting the office suite files have been also increased rapidly. Furthermore, also in the MFP (Multi-Function Peripheral) and printer market, devices supporting direct printing of office suite files have been released.
With regard to layout processing in printing of such an office suite file, for example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application Publication (JP-A) No. 2012-008991 discloses a technique to implement several actions with VBA. In accordance with the technique, at the time a user clicks a print button, page settings are defined such that text and other objects in a print range are accommodated in a single sheet of a selected print size. Further, in the case where multiple sheets are included in a single file of Microsoft Excel, at the time a user clicks a print button, printing of all the sheets can be also performed.
Furthermore, JP-A No. H05-298310 discloses a simplified printing method of a word processor, though it is not a technique relating to office suite files but relates to a layout processing in printing. The simplified printing method is to be used for pages of a document in the middle of proofreading by using a word processor. The word processor includes an input section to input data for document preparation; a display section to display the data input from the input section on a screen; a layout section to recognize the input data as a format in units of a page; a print section to print a document; a control section to control comprehensively the display section, the layout section, and the print section; and a function section to make the control section start a simplified printing process as one function of the input section.
Moreover, with regard to printing of a PDF (Portable Document Format) file, JP-A No. 2005-157413 discloses a printer which can receive electronic document data from a data processing apparatus or and performs a printing process. The printer includes a judging section to judge whether the electronic document data include font data; and a print control section. The print control section is configured as follows. In response to judging that the received data is data of electronic document in which data of fonts is embedded, based on the judgment result by the judging section, the print control section selects one of the embedded font data and font data of the printer based on the font use condition in the electronic document data, and performs printing.
In the case where a user instructs a MFP about printing by using an application as components of office software suites, such as Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel and Microsoft PowerPoint, the user may adjust detailed print settings while confirming a preview of a print result (a result of printing) indicated on a display of a computer. On the other hand, in the case where a user directly instructs a MFP about printing (direct printing), since the size of a panel of a MFP is small, it is difficult for the user to adjust print settings while previewing a print result on the panel. Accordingly, the kinds of print settings which can be adjusted by the user are limited to those regarding restrictive and simple functions, which is a problem.
With regard to the problem in this direct printing, description is given based on comparison between a case of using files based on OOXML as printing data and a case of using files described in a conventional print languages.
In the case of direct printing using files described in the conventional print languages (PDF, XPS, MEG, TIFF, etc.), a user has previously defined print settings by use of an application for the direct printing on a computer, or has defined print settings on a panel of a MFP or a printer. Such print languages or electronic files are based on a concept of pages, which comes from the specification of each file format, and strictly specifies therein the sizes and coordinate positions of objects included in each page. Accordingly, the output result is fixed uniquely.
On the other hand, in a file based on OOXML, the coordinate position of each object is not specified, which comes from the specification of the file format, and the layout of objects to be printed depends on a layout engine of an application to create a print image. Further, the file includes objects depending on settings of a drawing engine, such as date, currency units, color, etc., and objects to be calculated at the time of creating a print image, such as functional calculus and filtering processes.
Accordingly, when reduction or shift has been instructed for a file described in a conventional print language, it is enough that the whole page, whose print image has been created by using a fixed layout, is just reduced or shifted uniformly, which allows a user to adjust print settings as intended without previewing a print result. However, as for a file based on OOXML, change of a printing condition affects a layout of objects. Accordingly, in conventional direct printing, a user has hardly adjusted print settings as intended without previewing a print result.
In other words, in the conventional direct printing of printing data of a specific file format as with OOXML, in which the arrangement of objects in each page is not specified, there has been a problem that a user has hardly adjusted print settings as intended by a user so that a desired print result may not be obtained. The present invention seeks to solve the problem.